Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Shaping the Mediterranean basin: islands, coastlines and cultures across time

By bridging approaches and methodologies
from geosciences, archaeology and history, geoarchaeology is
transforming our understanding of the history and cultures that have
shaped the Mediterranean basin over millennia. The sheer diversity of
current research offers an excellent opportunity for moving beyond
geographical frontiers and to begin addressing the needs of a
multifaceted and evolving Mediterranean world. This workshop calls upon
environmental scientists, archaeologists and historians to discuss and
share research advances in the geoarchaeology of Mediterranean islands
and coastlines. The workshop will address issues, challenges and
prospects of current research on Mediterranean island and coastal
environments.

The primary focus of the project is notice and comment on open access material relating to the ancient world, but I will also include other kinds of networked information as it comes available.

The ancient world is conceived here as it is at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, my academic home at the time AWOL was launched. That is, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pacific, from the beginnings of human habitation to the late antique / early Islamic period.

AWOL is the successor to Abzu, a guide to networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world, founded at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago in 1994. Together they represent the longest sustained effort to map the development of open digital scholarship in any discipline.